Sri Lanka and India faced each other in the second game of the three-match ODI series in Colombo on Tuesday (July 20).
Opting to bat first, the hosts posted 275/9 in 50 overs on the back of Charith Asalanka’s 68-ball 65 and Chamika Karunaratne’s unbeaten 44 off 33 balls. Minod Bhanuka (36) and Dhananjaya de Silva (32) also made handy contributions with the bat.
For India, wrist-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (3-50) and vice-captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3-54) were the stand-out bowlers, claiming three wickets each in their stipulated 10 overs.
In reply, the visitors were struggling at 65/3 before Manish Pandey and Suryakumar Yadav added 50 runs for the fourth wicket to bail the team out of trouble.
After Pandey fell for 37, India’s innings once again faltered but Suryakumar slammed his maiden ODI half-century (53 off 44 balls) to keep the tourists in the chase.
Once Suryakumar got out in the 27th over, the task seemed way took difficult for India to achieve but the trio of Krunal Pandya, Deepak Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar proved their mettle with the bat.
Amid the pressure situation, Krunal scored 35 off 54 balls while Chahar (69 not out off 82 balls) and Bhuvneshwar (19) shared an unbeaten 84-run stand to take India over the line with three wickets and five balls to spare.
With this victory, Team India also took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match ODI series.
For his stellar showing with the bat, Deepak Chahar, who also claimed two wickets in the match, received rich praise from the cricket fraternity on Twitter.
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